It is one of the most common injuries in sports. It is also one of the most devastating.

The anterior cruciate ligament is one of five ligaments found in the human knee, yet it provides 85 percent of the restraining force, which is why world class athletes find themselves injuring it. It is deep within the knee and crossed with the posterior cruciate ligament to provide the tibia and femur the ability to rotate and flex in relation with each other.

There are over 100,000 ACL injuries in the United States annually, making it the most common knee injury among athletes. With the function of the ACL being to stabilize the knee to allow an athlete to land, cut and pivot, that is exactly how injuries occur. Most of the time it happens with no contact but can occur with contact to the area.

Dr. Selena Budge and her influence

Dr. Selena Budge is the founder and president of Stability Enhancement Systems (SES), a company that has dedicated its time and efforts to reducing the risk of injury in athletes through a ground breaking process called “targeted personalized interventions.” Part of the process is a muscle memory training involving the brain.

“I tore my ACL during my junior year of college and that really peaked my interest. But, it was also seeing these world class athletes like Robert Griffin III and Derrick Rose experiencing these knee injuries. So, I was determined to develop a program that can help reduce or eliminate non-contact ACL tears,” Budge said.

Budge earned her doctorate degree from Ohio State University in physical therapy. She is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a sports injury prevention specialist with an expertise in non-contact sports injuries.

“What causes these injuries is bad biomechanics. No two athletes run or move exactly the same. Some make pivoting moves with less stress on their knees and some do it with more. What we do as a company is go to schools and analyze an athlete’s movement patterns and point out to them their faulty patterns and the risks that they run,” Budge said.

Wynford taking advantage

One school that is taking advantage of the Stability Enhancement Systems’ program is Wynford High School. Girls basketball coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon has been a basketball coach for close to 20 years and has witnessed nine ACL tears during her time, nine to many in her mind.

“You see these injuries happen and you cannot help but to cry along with them because it is such a devastating injury to their athletic careers. These girls are supposed to be out here having fun and playing the game they love, not experiencing these kinds of injuries that cut their career short,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

During her 2012-2013 season, Taylor-Sheldon witnessed two ACL tears in the same season on her Wynford girls basketball team. The injuries were a wakeup call and Taylor-Sheldon starting doing some research and found Budge’s company.

“We implemented their program and in two years, we have not even seen a sprained ankle. The workout programs takes just 10-12 minutes at the beginning of every practice. Budge has some impressive statistics to back up her company including working with over 650 athletes and not one has experienced an ACL tear,” Taylor-Sheldon said.

The Brain

According to the SES, research suggests that knee ligament injuries occur on average 73 milliseconds following the initial pivot, cut or landing. Standard strength training exercises activate via the motor cortex portion of the brain — in the most elite level athletes this takes 120 milliseconds resulting in a time discrepancy between when the ACL is tearing and the speed at which the muscles can respond and stabilize the joint.

So, in other words, the muscles surrounding the joint can prevent an ACL tear if they could react fast enough. The SES injury prevention exercises are designed to train the brain to activate the muscles fast enough to stabilize the knee and prevent these tears by using exercises that activate the muscle movements in the cerebellum portion of the brain.

“SES injury prevention exercises activate muscles via the cerebellum — on average it takes between 50-80 milliseconds for these signals to be sent, the perfect window of time to help prevent injuries. The right injury prevention training via training cerebellar muscle activation pathways has resulted in significant reduction in ACL injuries,” Budge said.

The Process

There is a three step process that SES follows for their training. First, they conduct an injury risk profile. They evaluate an athlete’s functional movement using video motion analysis. They then create a personalized comprehensive risk profile. With the profile, they identify risk factors in the athlete’s movements. They break the risks into three categories, neuromuscular deficiencies, high risk movement patterns and asymmetric dysfunction.

After the research is done, SES then develops a personalized injury prevention program. The keys to the program are to resolve the risk factors by creating inherent changes and create stability in the muscles. Each athlete has their own program designed specifically for their risk factors.

“The programs are very easily implemented. It is set up to be seamlessly implemented by either the team’s strength and conditioning coach or anyone on the coaching staff. The program can be easily integrated into an existing structure by incorporating it into practice warm up or prior to strength training. It takes approximately eight minutes to complete SES,” Budge said.

The Stats

The fact that the training takes eight minutes mean that coaches and athletes do not need to spend a lot of precious practice time running these workouts. The athletes can even do the training on their own if they stay dedicated enough.

Athletes who perform the SES training have a 73.4 percent less of a risk of suffering a non-contact injury. Females are at five times greater risk of tearing an ACL again after two years of the initial injury. Females are also eight times more likely to suffer and ACL tear and all athletes are 15 times more likely to suffer a second tear within one year of the first injury. Thirty percent of all athletes suffer a second ACL tear within two years of returning to sports.